Classy Talk: Michael Shilling | Summer 2014

People should take this class if…
they want strategies for making their stories funnier AND better.

Can your students connect with you on social media? If so, how?
Oh yes they can, either on Facebook or Twitter.

Are any of your works online and available to the public?
You can check out my first novel at the Powell’s web site or in person at Elliott Bay Books.

What’s your teaching philosophy?
Listen to students and help them get better in a way that aligns with their individual needs as artists, not your needs as a teacher.

​Faulkner said to “kill your darlings.” ​Can you remember a specific darling you’ve killed and why? (Refrain from admitting to actual homicide in your Classy Talk Survey.)
There were those 34,000 words I knocked out of my first novel. I’d say that at least 33,999 of them were darlings.

What’s your favorite implement to write with? Why?
A computer that can cut and paste. Because I can’t.

What are you working on right now? What’s the hardest thing about it?
A coming-of-age comedy-edged novel about bad people in Miami. What’s hard about it is writing a novel about criminals that isn’t about crime.

What’s your favorite word in the English vocabulary?
Liminal, because that’s where the fun is.

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